Question

A certain strain of bacteria doubles every 6 minutes. Assuming that you start with only one bacterium, how many bacteria could be present at the end of 84 minutes (round answer to the nearest bacteria)?

This seems like it has nothing to do with my Algebraic Connections

Answer 1

The answer is 28 strains of bacteria.

Explanation:

at the first 6 minutes, the no. would be 2 strains.
so, it is of the form ...

`6min=2 "strains"`

and...

`84min=? "strains"`

through cross multiplication...

`x=84/6*2`

which is equal to...

`28"strains"`.

Answer 2

`[A_0]*2^14` bacteria

Explanation:

Well, a bacteria doubles every six minutes.

So, after `n` "trials" of `6` minutes, we would have `[A_0]*2^n` bacteria, where `A_0` is the initial amount.

Therefore, after `6` minutes, we would have `84/6=14` trials.

And so, there'll be `[A_0]*2^14` bacteria.